Friday, August 27, 2010

Xtra Ketones

I decided to get a Precision Xtra,to see if it really was all that different from the old fashioned way of peeing on a strip.A FB acquaintance gave me some soon to expire strips,and I tried them but you can't use expired strips..the meter won't let you. So I called the doc's office for an rx,emphasizing blood KETONE strips. Later,the pharmacy called me,& again I emphasized blood KETONE strips. As you can probably guess,when I showed up at the pharmacy the rx was blood glucose strips & the pharmacist would have to call the docs office.4 hours later,they called again to say that the rx could be picked up today,after 3 pm.I got there about 3:30 pm and they said sorry,it wouldn't be ready till after 6. I cooly informed them that they'd said 3 pm & I was holding them to it.By this time,the cars behind me in the drivethrough were driving around (and going inside). So the tech went & got it pushed through. It wasn't her fault, & she apologized for the inconvenience. I was not in a very good mood(made even better by my recent string of 300+ blood sugars), and all I wanted was to get the rx and go check the darn ketones. I payed the $57.36(again,insurance didn't cover much & the Freestyle program covered nothing),went home,& voilà, this is my first meter reading.1.2. I seem to be having truly rotten bgs of late,ever since my Ping broke,vacation,etc..& I am no closer to getting them in line(switch insulins,sets,lines,etc).At least now I know how resistant I am,& can maybe use that info when I'm correcting.(presence of ketones make one more resistant) Urine strips aren't very accurate when you're visiting the restroom every 20 minutes.And sometimes I don't even think about ketones & just correct..when really, I should. Another thing about ketones is,they sometimes require extra calories(& that takes even more insulin) Fair to say,if I'm super high & feel like warmed over death, I probably have ketones.

We have found the ketone meter to be invaluable managing my young son when he's sick, particularly with a recent vicious 7 day bout of vomiting. We still managed to end up in the ER one morning when he got hypoglycemic and just couldn't get any sugar down. For what it's worth, a blood ketone level of 2.8 equated with "small" ketones on the lab draw he had done simultaneously, and he was not yet in DKA. That leads me to believe that some of the ketosis in such an illness can just be from starvation.

Still, all that said, we love the meter and the additional information it provides. We never use urinary ketones anymore.